What makes a teacher successful?
Experience in reading, writing, mathematics or science is required, but the ability to transfer this knowledge to another person is what distinguishes a great teacher. What good is it if a teacher knows all the facts but cannot communicate them in a way that others can understand? What is the point of submitting information if it cannot be accepted due to inability to reform in a digestible way?
In addition to knowing the content of the curriculum, during their preparation for work, teachers gain a basic understanding of how people acquire and absorb knowledge. In order to look into their world and understand the peculiarities of their work with children and students, we present to your attention 17 principles that every teacher uses to teach.
Students learn differently
It may seem easy and obvious, but how many classrooms are currently designed in the same study style?
Worksheets and diagrams work well for students with good visual perception, but there are children who need to hear the information to understand it fully. Most educators make an effort to explain everything in several different ways so that children can understand, regardless of their weaknesses.
Many lessons, especially at an early age, are organized by engaging as many senses as possible in order to make the brain work as efficiently as possible.
2. Strengthening
We take geography as an example – if children need to know which are the district cities in the country, it is most reasonable to support the knowledge in order to keep it in their minds. You can try showing the map and drawing. You can sing a song, you can play in the yard with an improvised map of the country. The point is for children to engage their brains as actively as possible to memorize the lesson.
3. There are 7 learning styles
Visual: Using the eyes and perceiving mostly visual information.
Sound: Use of songs or rhythms.
Verbal: Describing and listening to words.
Kinesthetic: Using touch and taste to explore information.
Logical: More mathematical approach to the concepts, sustainable processes, following templates.
Interpersonal training: Group training.
Internal work: Self-study, the so-called independent work in Bulgaria.
4. Submission of relevant information
Information is stored for a long time when it relates to everyday life. It is good to reinforce mathematical concepts with real-life examples or the student will have no reason to absorb the information other than the exam and the subsequent assessment.
History is one of the most difficult topics to deal with in the present, as it deals mainly with past events, dates and people. Finding the right teaching methods for each class is one of the hardest things for educators, perhaps in such areas they have the strongest need for the support of child-rearing adults. As far as possible, history should be experienced first-hand, museums, field trips and other enrichment activities.
5. Failure is an amazing teacher
Adults learn from failures, so do children. In fact, ask any successful person what has helped them, and usually the answer will include a story that goes back to some big “mess” that led to the right conclusions. Failure teaches even better than a perfect exam result. Contrary to popular belief, educators see children’s ability to do better, precisely because they have failed in a previous case. However, encouragement from the student’s relatives is also needed to take advantage of this opportunity.
6. Integrated curriculum
Most teachers try very hard not to teach learning topics as isolated piles of information, combining knowledge in a memorable and useful way. Instead of isolating individual topics in curricula that use thematic units, they work well to bring knowledge together in a way that is useful and memorable.
For example, a lesson in Egyptian history may include history, a little about linguistics and language (with hieroglyphs), science (physics and the construction of the pyramids), homework, curiosity (a story about a child’s favorite Egyptian monument), and reading a book about ancient culture.
7. Define “Learning”
From a psychological point of view, it turns out that the word “learned” has different sides. In the classroom can be the ability to express facts and information during assessment. Although this is a form of learning, there are other forms of learning, which are just as important:
memorization;
gathering facts or methods;
understanding reality;
awareness of the world.
8. Caring for introverts in the classroom
It is easy to accept that “group work” is always the best approach. That students who raise their hand when asked are careful about the material. And that students who prefer to work alone are single. But all this is not necessarily true. And teachers try to reach every child, whether they are willing to express knowledge in words like others or trying to make it quiet, almost imperceptible.
9. Create space
Every teacher tries to follow the rules, but sometimes teaching a group of children something doesn’t fit into “standing still and thinking about the task.” Sometimes it requires the work space to have a free mode of movement, creation and design.
Creativity requires activating the right side of the brain. Logistically, giving students the space to spread out and create, to move away from the desk, or to look at the sky outside is sometimes a good solution. Teachers leave space for ideas, hoping that children will be able to apply the theory of the lesson to something of their own. Good teachers are sometimes a quiet mentor, helping only with technical matters, instead of dictators leading an army of pawns.
10. Teaching short and organized in “bites”
When a person wants to memorize a phone number, he divides the numbers into easy-to-remember patterns (usually threes). This is because the brain has to work hard to keep a long list of numbers, but it can do so when they are organized in meaning. The same principle applies to lectures and children’s lessons.
11. Use several different “angles”
First, the teacher explains the basic concept. This provides a framework and context for the information. Second, it examines each part of the process in more detail. Third, he explains the whole process again, this time encouraging students to ask questions. Fourth, he asks students to explain it to him. Finally, he takes the process into his own hands and inserts it into an everyday situation that helps students apply the information to a real-life example. As it reinforces the concept from different angles, the brain is better able to organize information. Trying to cover all the points in one explanation will reach most students.
12. Use the correct method to teach the material
In the pursuit of deeper learning, some professors may reject the concept of shallow learning – simply recalling theories, facts and rules. However, a good teacher remembers that there is some validity to rotate memorization and the ability to regulate rules and facts, depending on the information.
For example, developing the ability to remember numbers and group is especially useful when reproducing dates and can be used to learn history. But the fact that a child remembers the dates written in the lesson, thanks to the ability to group numbers, does not mean that he has any idea what a world war or the creation of a state (related to the dates in question) leads to. Depending on the age, teachers provide information that will give children a correct idea of what happened in the past, without causing them torment and trauma.
13. They try to use technology
Never before in human history has there been such incomparable access to knowledge and information. Using a tablet or smartphone, the student can get instant answers to questions that used to mean rummaging through a dusty encyclopedia somewhere in the library. This means that memorization is no longer as necessary as it was 100 years ago. Old traditions and the transmission of information orally have almost disappeared. Instead of opposing advances in technology, teachers can take the opportunity to go deeper into students’ minds, as they do not have to waste time trying to gather hard-to-find facts. Exploring topics, studying more basic sociological issues, teaching the art of ingenuity and creativity,
14. Have students teach
One of the most effective methods of learning is to teach another. Many teachers provide children with opportunities to give lectures, presentations and develop their own lesson plans. Teachers can instruct students to create a lesson plan for a much younger child, even if the concept is difficult. This forces students to simplify the theory, find interesting real-life stories and examples, and deconstruct the concepts into “pills” that are easy enough to assimilate.
15. They create curiosity
We know how, when something is interesting to the learner, his abilities in the field quickly increase and become much wider. Higher focus, perseverance, initiative, commitment and investment in the material are created. Teachers can give students the freedom to choose their own topics, which improves the work of the class, which may suffer from a lack of motivation.
16. Formation of habits
Psychologists say it takes about 30 days for a new habit to form. Parents who teach children a new routine (such as brushing their teeth) must help their child for at least 30 consecutive days before the brain can work on “autopilot”. This is the moment when the usual habit appears. The same concept is applied in training. Teachers can explain to students the importance of daily learning, instead of the horror of sleepless learning the night before the exam.
The small but daily repetition of the information does a wonderful job of getting the brain to dust it off and store it diligently in an accessible place. Building a habit can become extremely effective if the activities are continued until a new, higher norm of their existence is reached.
17. Feedback, what and when
Feedback is crucial to how students learn. When they can understand their strengths and weaknesses, accept and receive constructive criticism, be redirected to areas that need help, the overall learning process intensifies. The question is whether the student can accept the criticism and the teacher can convey it effectively but not hurtfully.
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